title: Theory of hydrostatic lubrication for polymer hydrogel-coated surfaces with excess salt.
abstract: It is argued on the basis of a solution of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation and scaling arguments that for arbitrary salt concentration, the overwhelming majority of the regions of contact of two hydrogel-coated surfaces should be separated by a thin fluid layer. This is likely to be one of the mechanisms responsible for their excellent lubricating capability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. j.sokoloff@neu.edu
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Sokoloff